“I’ll fill ye in on the way,” Leith said as he finished the wine. “Thank ye, Denwen. I’ll be in contact soon.”
As they headed out, Leith said, “I need ye back, Magrath, me Faither has gotten worse and I’m scared that this time, he’ll never come back.”
28
The evening had come again and Mary was feeling beyond hungry and somewhat ill again. She pressed a hand to her chest now and again, massaging the pain away and beating it to get the air circling inside her to come up and out.
She could not count how many times she slipped into a doze and out of it. When she did come back, she looked at the tiny window to see the sun sinking and felt her heart sink.
Her soul began to sink in despair. Did she even have days to live or was it mere hours instead? Hours or days, she did not know, what she did know was that her time was limited.
At one point she began to hum a hymn just to pass the time. She prayed too, for Leith mostly. If her fortune had run out, she prayed his had not. It got to evening and she had not moved from her spot as her strength was gone. The room went dim, a cloud had probably covered the sun or perhaps rain was coming in.
This late in the year, the winter rains were coming in just like the day before. A moment later she was proven right, the rumbling sound of thunder was in the air. She smelled rain but it did not fall yet.
The rumbles were getting louder when the door was opened and the guard from yesterday morning came in. In his hand were pewter cups, one of tea and another one of porridge. Her eyes went wide. “This is all I can get for ye. Miss Rinalda took it from the kitchens in secret. Nay one can ken about this.”
Relief and appreciation flooded Mary’s heart after a day of starvation. She reached up and took both cups, “Please tell her my thanks. Do you know if…” Leith, “Young Lenichton has found the healer? Is he here?” She wanted to take those words back the moment she had said them. If he was here, he would have come from me already.
“Nay Miss, I have nay word of Sir’s movements,” he said before backing out, “I’ll come for those soon.”
He nodded and left but she could hear him lingering behind the door. She sipped the tea first, happy that something warm was in her stomach. Little by little the hollow feeling inside her lessened. When she was done with the porridge, a portion of herself had returned.
Setting the cup in the bowl she moved it aside and sighed, looking up she uttered, “Lord, I beg of your abundant mercies, please let it be well with Leith. Let him come back and clear me of this crime I have not committed.”
She sagged back on the wall and sighed, moments before a terrible, ear-splitting thunderclap literally shook the walls and had her launching away from it. A torrent of rain begun to pelt the ground and she found a corner to huddle in. Leith, please, rescue me.
* * *
“This goddamn rain willnae stop!” Leith snarled. He paced from his spot near the window in the room that Theodor had given them when the rains had started again.
They had set out just past noon that day and the sudden torrent had forced them to turn back. Now it was heading to dusk and the rains had not held up, even a little. It was still a continuous white sheet of showers. He spun and strode the other way. His worry for his father was eating him from the inside out.
“It seems to be getting worse,” Magrath said soberly. As if on cue, a bolt of lightning carved the sky in two, followed by an earsplitting clap of thunder.
Leith paced even more with his hands running through his hair, rubbing over his face and even picking at his clothes. He kept worrying about his father, his mother, Mary, and the whole village.
“Sir, please sit,” Magrath said. “Ye’ll tire yerself out by pacing, and I need ye to tell me what happened with yer faither.”
Huffing under his breath, Leith pulled out a chair and sat. His mind went back to the moment his pride for his father had shattered in splinters.
“Everyone was joyful, celebrating, music was in the air and food was coming out of the kitchens quickly…” he began. “I kept looking at me Faither and me Mother, hoping all would be right with them. Out of the corner of me eye, I saw me Faither drinking a lot. I dinnae ken much of it until I saw him muttering to himself. We were eating and foolish me kent he was praying, but when he began muttering nonsense, I began to worry.”
Leith folded his fisted fingers under his chin, “To be honest, I should have felt something was off, I went to see him last night and he was sleeping but he wasnae moving. I havenae seen anyone sleep without moving.”
His mind flashed back to the moment when things had begun to get bad. The moment his father had teetered on his breakout, was akin to the raw electric charge that preceded a lightning storm. His father had gotten still and the veins on his neck were pulsing. A heartbeat later, Aaron was flinging platters and goblets east and west.
“He was sleeping without movement, ye say?” Magrath asked while stroking his chin. “That doesnae sound well…”
Leith shot a look at him then went back to his memory, “He kept shouting to a phantasm, daring whatever he saw to kill him. I lurched at him and tried to control him but he had a strength I dinnae ken he would have, based on how weak he was during his
